all right.

welcome back. by the way, actually there's a new york challenge. your debut. thursday the 22nd. you're playing. >> yes. the team i love the most. no. i used to play for the rival. >> yeah. >> you couldn't script it any be thor. >> you couldn't script this. >> i love that. mika? >> i don't usually wear jewelry but this pendant is supporting the fight against pan creatic cancer. >> very good. very good. >> what did you learn? >> sarcozy didn't scream and lecture the team. it shocks me. >> we're very excited. welcome. welcome. mika, what time is it? >> morning joe" you it's time for "the daily rundown" with chuck and savannah. >> we're late again. >> yes. selling the recovery. the president hopes to get a political charge in michigan as he breaks ground on a car

battery plant. and blood money? as if bp already didn't have enough pr problems, now it admits it did talk to the british government of releasing prisoners to lock down an offshore oil deal with libya. but denies anything to do with the release of the lockerbie bomber. we shall see. i'm chuck todd live here in grand rapids if you could tell by the runway background. savannah guthrie is off today. the president does what's become a familiar thing for a lot of folks, a stop somewhere in the heartland to promote a project that was funded by the stimulus. here in michigan, it's about car batteries with the hope of creating a new industry in this country for the electric car battery. we shall see later today. i'll be sitting down with the president to try to figure out why is it while the statistics that the stimulus preventing a free fall, why aren't we seeing the job growth that folks

promised a year ago? car batteries is one thing and these plants. they create a couple of hundred jobs in the areas starting up but everybody es looking for the hundreds and thousands of new jobs. developing right now in the gulf, bp says they have repaired a leak in the new sealing cap and are prepared to go ahead with integrity tests on the blown out well cap. anne thompson is in venice, louisiana. anne, the cap meant to plug the leak is leaking? is that true? >> reporter: i know. can you even believe this? when they started to prepare the cap to do the well integrity test last evening, chuck, they discovered a leak in the choke line that comes from the cap. and so, they spent most of the night repairing that. they sent down one assembly. they brought it down and back up

and they have a new choke assembly on the cap and keeping their fingers crossed it works. they are now ready to start preparations again to do that well integrity test and those preparations involve sealing the various valves in the cap to make sure there are no leaks. they hope to get this test under way by noon. and then once they start this test, again, the whole key will be the pressure readings. they're going to do this test in six-hour intervals. readings along the way and what they're looking for are high pressure readings meaning the well is in good shape. low pressure readings they have trouble underneath the sea floor. chuck and savannah? >> anne, one other question. the relief well which, of course, the permanent stop for this leaking hole in the bottom of the ocean, drilling has stopped for that and we have stopped some containment of oil while the tests take place. is that correct? >> reporter: well, it stopped and started, chuck.

they originally stopped the work on the first relief well which is the well that is closest to the target. but they were able to make some progress yesterday when they start this well integrity test, they have to shut down the containment. they -- once they realized they had a problem, they're containing the oil and at 22,000 barrels a day but, again, they have to shut that down in order to do this integrity test. >> all right. anne thompson, at our home base there in venice, louisiana, thanks very much. let's move to capitol hill. yeah. where less than two hours away from a critical vote on the wall street reform bill, the massive overhaul, cornerstone of the democratic agenda and it must clear today's hurdle before it moves to a final vote. ken strickland is live on capitol hill to report it to us. the procedural vote, the 60-vote margin to prevent the filibuster

and then what? >> basically, democrats and the white house are this close to the finish line of accomplishing a huge piece of their agenda. at 11:00, about two hours from now majority leader reid will have to get 60 votes to break the republican filibuster. he got some help from three republicans. olympia snowe of maine, susan collins also of maine and the new go-to guy, scott brown of massachusetts. we have talked about the politics. let's talk about what this sweeping, broad regulatory reform bill actually does. the first thing it does is establishes a consumer protection bureau to protect consumers. the other thing it does is creates a financial stability oversight council. this is an early warning system of sorts to let regulators know if there's anything brewing in the system for a tremendous impact on the economy. it has new regulations for the derivatives market. those are the controversial tools that cause problearts of

problem and ends taxpayer-funded bailouts, democrats say. republicans on the other side generally opposed to this bill say that this bill will really not end this too big to fail phenomenon. they also complain that there's nothing in this bill that really gets at the crux of the problem. franny may and freddie mac. the final vote will occur probably sometime this afternoon but when democrats go home for their august recess, this is another thing to tout as a success in congress. chuck? >> all right, ken. we'll see if they can get any sort of political help out of it. we shall see. there's some folks concerned that the consumer agency will contract credit. another one of these unintended consequences. we'll follow to see if the criticism is true. white house trying to diffuse tensions with congress.

the president met with house democrats late yesterday. nbc's mike viqueira live at the white house. is everybody singing kumbaya now between the house democratic leadership and robert gibbs, or is there still a little bit of tension? >> reporter: they're making that effort, chuck. you talk to a new people this morning. it is a mixed message. you can tell that the marching orders to sort of hose it down, de-emphasize the back and forth against all odds for five days springing from the comment on sunday that the house is actually in play. chuck, you interview eed nancy pelosi, what was it, about six weeks ago saying, absolutely not, we'll win. clash of two messages there and to hear robert gibbs state that, the obvious, it was a shock. they feel like they have stuck their necks out on any number of votes, the energy bill, chief among them and the senate hasn't done anything and the bill

languishing over there and dancing to the tune. collins and snowe calling the tune in the first months of the obama administration in the stimulus bill and had that reduced and priorities changed and lingering animosities. a lot of them are ancient between the house, senate and the house and the white house. but today, everybody is trying to put on the best face and sort of de-emphasize the clash. the only place louder than the north lawn is the tarmac right now. >> yeah, well, that's for sure. the house democrats with the rodney dangerfield complex. >> reporter: no respect. >> fascinated by the remarks we have been previewed with by the senate republican lead we are a speech to young republicans basically putting up a defense of what the establishment, washington republican leadership has done with what he believes is a good thing. >> reporter: one thing we have

noticed over the last several months with the tea party and ad hoc groups and throughout the land is that republicans are trying to co-op that movement, bring them under the republican tent. it is not slam dunk. there's a famous story around the hill that john boehner, republican leader of the house, showed up at a rally in his district of the tea party and didn't know who john boehner was. the people putting that thing on. mitch mcconnell says republicans, we girded for the fight, confident of supporters. we broke out of the washington echo chamber and we got our groove back says mitch mcconnell in remarks and vance of the speech this morning, chuck. >> interesting to see how he delivers that last remark. all right. mike viqueira on the white house lawn, thanks very much. new reports of just how much the u.s. paid that iranian scientist for secrets of iran's nuclear program.

jim miklaszewski joins us from the pentagon. mick, the numbers are staggering. the cia paid $5 million and one report said offered him $50 million to not return to iran. do we know how true the report is? >> reporter: the claim from the iranian nuclear scientist himself and no basis to that fact but u.s. officials confirm that the cia paid this nuclear scientist $5 million after the scientist defected to the united states but he's now returning to teheran. good news here according to u.s. officials is this person cannot get the hands on that money. he returned to teheran overnight a hero's welcome and reunion with his wife and son who may have been in danger back there in iran but the money is in frozen accounts controlled by the u.s. government for the time being. one of the big questions here, chuck, is once sanctions if

they're ever lifted on iran would he then have the ability to get at that $5 million? but there's an even bigger question. will he be around to collect it? because iranian intelligence agencies have obviously been following this very closely. saw that he had some freedoms on the internet to post videos and internet messages and the fact that he was paid $5 million belies his apparent claim that he was kidnapped and interrogated under pressure. >> yeah. he may have gotten a hero's welcome for the cameras but we'll see. jim miklaszewski at the pentagon for us, thanks very much. it is every dieter's dream, the pill to help with weight loss and for the first time in more than a decade it might be a reality. abe fda panel weighing today on a new diet drug. bob bazell is on this story, and bob, all right. really? a diet pill.

will it happen? this is the holy grail of the pharmaceutical industry, is it snot. >> reporter: certainly one of the holy grails. the drug called qnexa. it's got one of the ingredients that was a diet drug taken off the market ten years ago and no good diet drugs since then that was phen-fen and worked pretty well and caused severe heart problems. this one has -- one of the ingredients of the first phen but not the second f 0e fen. the tests submitted to the fda shows that people at the highest doses lost 10% of their body weight along with diet and exercise and didn't suffer adverse consequences but others say the side effects are sleeplessness and could be an unpleasant experience. of course, so many people that want to lose 10% or more of body weight that there's a huge

demand for this. >> all right. staying on this fda news, yesterday they voted to keep this diabetes drug avandia on the market. that was a surprise. you and many others thought they were going to vote to pull it. >> they came close to taking it off the market. the groups brought together and very few of the people on the fda advisory panels are specialists in that disease so there were very few diabetes experts on it. some consumer reps or lawyers. some are different kinds of doctors and so they have a very long discussion and it goes back and forth. but in the end, most people were very convinced that avandia increases the risk for heart attacks and most people on the panel wanted removed, more people than anybody else but to taken together the largest majority wanted it on the market but with severe restrictions. labeling or locking it up to be given to people that need it

most. the fda leadership, new leadership of the -- under the democrats will make the decision about what to do next. everybody's looking at it as an indication of the foorm suit call condition. >> should be interesting. bob bazell visiting us in the washington newsroom. >> better than the tarmac, i'll tell you. >> very nice. coming up, is there a civil war between the white house and house democrats? probably not. we'll go to the course, congressman van holland tasked with keeping democrats in control of the house. but first, a look ahead at the president's schedule. as you know, he comes here to michigan. he'll sit down with me. we'll is a full interview tomorrow. you're watching msnbc. so with more flight options, i can find the combination that gets me there and back quickest. where you book matters. expedia.

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we just had a very productive meeting with the president and he an opportunity to sit down with the president of the united states is a great privilege. >> all right. well, speaker nancy pelosi and top house democrats all smiles of course after the meeting at the white house but five days after robert gibbs suggested that republicans could -- had enough seats in play to put the house in jeopardy, the in fighting seemed to spark up. so we're going to talk to congressman chris van holland. and congressman, i want to ask you, why -- why is it what robert gibbs said on sunday not good for house democrats? what is it that upset members of your caucus? i know you heard about it and speaker pelosi heard about it. why was it so upsetting to them? >> i think it was less the exact words as compared to how his

words were interpreted. because what he said is what we're saying at the dccc for a long time. a lot of seats are in play. but he didn't complete the sentence and said what's also clear which is we're going to keep our majority in the house. he said that recently. but let me just say, chuck, we had a very positive, very productive, very friendly meeting with the president yesterday. we're all on the same page. we're very focused on the legislative agenda between now and the end of the year, especially jobs and the economy. so, i think this is overblown and what i also know is that we're on the same page working together moving forward. >> do you believe that the white house up until now hasn't done enough for house democrats? because we heard that grumbling, too. this idea the white house does more for senate democrats and not enough for house democrats. is that a fair critique? >> i don't think it's a fair

critique for this reason. the white house and the president have done events for the dccc as many as they have done for the senate committee. and that, of course, helps all of us collectively. the vice president of the united states, chris biden, chris crossing this country in support of democratic candidates and out there helping publicize the important benefits of the economic stimulus program, in particular congressional districts. our sense is that the white house is fully engaged. they know what's at stake. they understand that the success of the president's second years of the first term are at stake here and they also understand that the day after the election like it or not the results will be interpreted as a referendum on the white house and the president. so, they're all in here and we're moving forward together. >> how many seats are in play? in your mind. how big is this field?

how many democratic seats and how many republican seats? what are you telling members and donors? >> well, as you know, chuck, in 2006, we picked up with the democrats 30 seats. we picked up another 25 seats in 2008. on top of that, you have a lot of other seats that are in play. you know, in play is a loose term because there are some that are much more intense than others. but clearly, there are lots of competitive seats. the democrats currently hold almost every swing district in the country and why we at the dccc have been very focused on being prepared for this for more than 18 months so what's very clear, though, and this is a major difference between now and 1994, is the american people do not see the washington republicans as a viable alternative to the democrats. and why would they? i mean, why would you want to go back and put the same guys in charge that had the economic policies that drove us into the

ditch? and when they have told us, this is what we want to focus on. we want to focus not on what robert gibbs said but john boehner. they have told us what they would do if they were in charge. it is not good news for the american people. >> well, congressman, i notice you didn't give me a number. is it 70 seats total? about 60 democrats and republicans? is that fair? 75, is it 100? what is the number? >> no. i'd say between 60 and 70 seats in play, republican and democrat seats. republican seats are in play. there's a big opportunity for pickup. mark kirk's seat. louisiana. hawaii. seats in pennsylvania. we are not just on defense. there are opportunities on offense here. so, there are a lot of seats in play. but, but again, it's all going to come down to that choice between two candidates and we are asking the american people, listen to what the republicans

say that they will do. because it's even worse than the obstruction and their just say no attitude is what they would do to the country if they were in charge and telling us every day. >> all right. congressman, the man in charge with trying to keep the democrats in power in the house, thanks very much. seeing more on chris on sunday. the congressman joins david gregory for a first of its kind debate. the four senate and house senate committee chairs in the first joint appearance ever. that's this sunday on "meet the press." all four of them, first time seeing pete sessions in this forum so far this year. it will be a first. talk about a political junkie's dream. it will be fun. all right. up next in today's "decision 2010," why is the front row jumping in the debate in colorado? >> dan [ bleep ].

>> and you're lying! >> the story of the republican senate hopeful, the tea party challenger and the gun dealer. but first, on message. that's "washington speak" for when a politician sticks to the talking points. today, we expect the president trying to be on message highlighting what the white house says is the recovery act that boosted the economy. if you have "washington speak" you'd like to clarify, send us an e-mail.

"decision 2010" time. when we talk about debate fireworks, we don't usually mean expletives of the front row but yesterday in colorado at a breakfast debate, mounting a tea party-backed challenge at the republican men's club it got a little bit more than they

bargained for over their eggs. take a listen. >> dan -- >> [ bleep ]. against me and you're lying! >> sit down. >> all right. the guy off camera that was a one-time gun dealer and pawnshop owner greg gulianski in the late '90s, his shop known as an easy place to get quote saturday night specials" and charged with an indictment and after a series of stings, by the atf, the charges were pleaded down to a single misdemeanor. that said, norton's campaign running radio ads blaming buck, chief of a general crimes decision at the time and was reprimanded for conversations with defense attorneys before the grand jury's indictment. so yesterday, she brought it up again. listen. >> because of the reckless

disregard for his activity as a prosecutor in -- and that's what the reprimand says, folks. i know you don't like it. it was his words. and he said it compromised the case. that's why 37 criminal charges were pled down to 1 misdemeanor. >> [ bleep ]. that was a case against me and you're lying! >> and this gentleman is a large donor to ken buck. folks, this is serious. sir, you are no longer allowed to sell guns in the united states of america. >> all right. well, large contributor may be a little much. he contributed at least $700 to the buck campaign but did norton campaign pushing this video trying to make buck seem too extreme to win. yesterday, norton won a court fight by the way to stay on the primary ballot and had to petition to get on because to

avoid the state republican convention. colorado republican politics, little nuts right now. they're presumed nominee for governor scott mckin nnis, theye trying to figure out if there's a way to replace him on the ballot. he's been defiant and his campaign says he is going to remain in the race. one more thing. nevada republican nominee sharon angle sat down with the christian broadcasting network's david brody and talked about the media strategy. take a listen. >> when you are on fox news or talking to more conservative outlets but maybe not "meet the press" or a "this week," that type of shows, the perception starts to be like you're avoiding those mainstream media outlets. >> well, in that audience, will they let me say i need $25 from a million people? go to sharonangle.com? send money. will they let me say that?

will i get a bump in my -- on my website? you can watch whenever i go on to a show like that, we get an immediate bump. you can see the little spinners. >> fascinating. a candidate admitting in public that the reason they go on some of these news shows, they're not news, is to raise money. you don't often hear a candidate say it. strategists talk about it all the time. fascinating. she needs a lot of money. harry reid up on the air with another new ad today and not accepted too many listings, either. we shake the midterm money tree. who's ahead with campaign cash? plus, the state of unemployment here in michigan, what does it take to get people back to work in a state home to the nation's highest

unemployment rate? former governor jim blanchard will talk about us. did bp push for the lockerbie bomber's release? what n what city is the ford presidential library? the answer and more coming up. an accident doesn't have to slow you down. from new car replacement and guaranteed repairs to accident forgiveness, we do all we can to help you move on. liberty mutual auto insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? [ female announcer ] there's something about grilling out that makes everything taste better. maybe it's cooking over an open flame. or the juicy beef franks on a delicious bun

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all right. bottom of the hour now. let's take a look at what's driving washington today. bp says the leak on the side of the new well cap has been fixed. integrity tests in the gulf may resume later this morning. the senate expected to pass the broadest overhaul of the u.s. financial rules since the great depression today. the dodd-frank reform bill hit the 60-vote bill thanks to support of republican senators. president obama will be here

in michigan later today for a groundbreaking ceremony at an advance battery factory and discuss clean energy and job creation caused by the $800 billion stimulus. all right. new questions today about whether bp pressured the british government to release the lockerbie bomber in exchange for a $900 million oil deal with libya. nbc news chief foreign correspondent andrea mitchell has the story. >> reporter: the outrage over the hero's welcome last year in libya for the man convicted of the pan am bombing, al megrahi. a bombing of 1988 killing 189 americans. many were students at syracuse university. megrahi let free because libyans doctors said he had three months to live. advanced prostrait cancer. bp is accused of pressuring the british government for the

release. in exchange of an oil deal with libya. u.s. lawmakers are outraged. >> if bp is found to have gained access to libyan oil reserves by using a mass murderer as a bargaining chip, then make no mistake. any money it makes off of that oil is blood money. poor and simple. >> reporter: secretary of state hillary clinton asked about the tradeoff. >> seriously, i've received the letter. >> reporter: she said she'd look into it but spokesman suggested not much the u.s. can do. >> there are some practical questions of the exactly what they would be asking us to do and what would be our ability to inquire as to, you know, a conversation that -- alleged to have taken place between a private company, a government and another deinvolved government. >> reporter: bp acknowledged that it talked to the british government in 2007 calling it the slow progress of the prisoner transfer agreement and

that a delay could have, quote, a negative impact on transportation interests and that raises more questions than it answers. >> now andrea, did the u.s. government know that bp was doing this back then behind the scenes? obviously, we are learning more now but how much did the u.s. government and i know we were hands off because this is a deal between the uk government at the time, the labor government at the time, and bp. but did we know? >> we had to know because, look. at the time the bush administration, the bush white house pointing to libya as a great success story and they weaned libya of terror connections, they said. they got libya to give up chemical weapons and also to give up the rudimentary nuclear program it had. this is an example of one very

heralded example of getting a company off the terror list and back into the family of nations and jack is that true negotiating this. the uk government has to answer to this but you have to know that the state department and others in the bush white house must have known what was going on behind the scenes. they have not acknowledged that, i should point out. >> very quickly, when's coming up today at 1:00? >> we have a big show. ben jealous of naacp and joe lieberman and bill riley, the co-chair of the bp investigating commission so a lot coming up at 1:00. >> very nice. >> thanks. >> all right. that is a packed show. >> don't forget your interview with the president later today. >> thank you for that joint plug there. we can do this all day. see you at 1:00. all right. president obama will be here in michigan promoting clean energy and the stimulus about job creation. it's the last topic that's the biggest concern for this state as the residents have been

suffering through a very, very slow recovery. james blanchard is a former democratic governor of michigan. governor blanchard, lay it out for us. where has -- michigan has lost a ton of jobs. is almost all of it been via the auto industry over the last decade? >> well, the short answer is, yes. manufacturing. manufacturing has been in the decline in the u.s. the good news is today we're going to see the groundbreaking of a new battery plant, compact battery plant to create about 300 jobs but it is 1 of 16 new facilities in michigan for advanced battery and storage representing about a $5 billion investment. so diversifying the economy, using our leverage in transportation and vehicles, but transportation generally and manufacturing, is one of the ways to diversify the economy. this is a good news story today

and a partnership between michigan and a local community and washington and the president. >> but you talk about this public/private partnership in this case not talking -- when you look at the $800 billion stimulus and the part about the batteries i believe $2.5 billion, very small chunk of it in comparison to the big problem and one thing they promised, the government stimulus would then be taken over by private investment. and the fact is, private companies are sitting on over a trillion dollars supposedly in investment capital. is there something the government can do, whether federal or state to encourage these private companies to spend some of this capital? >> well, i think there's still a lot of uncertainty as to whether we have a double dip recession. i think washington playing with fire. not to see the need for additional stimulus, actually. i can tell you that one of the new projects we have that we're all supporting in michigan is new detroit windsor crossing,

busiest trade corridor in the world and leverage several billion dollars of private investment, create 10,000 construction jobs just on the detroit side. and then, really, expand our trade whorizons in which michign has probably 300,000 jobs depending on trade and as you know canada's our largest trading partner so there are a lot of ways out of that. i see private sector investment increasing in michigan but i think as i mentioned that we are going do need additional stimulus no matter what anybody says. the deficit's a huge problem. you can start to deal with that relatively easily, i might add in a couple of years but not now. >> well, politically, though, this debate is very hot. people saying democrats just won't cast a vote for more stimulus at this point. because of this rising concern with the middle of the electorate. our own polling showed more people would prefer a focus on the deficit than more stimulus

even if it means a slower economic recovery. how do you sell this? >> that's what was said in the second term of fdr and we ended up having not only a double dip recession but a double dip depression and we're playing with fire in my opinion and we should look less sometimes at the polls and more at where we're going to be in a year or two or five and ten and not where we are in a next few days. i realize not being on the ballot and by the way, i'm glad as a democrat i'm not on the ballot, i realize that this does affect the elections but the fundamental issue, i don't care what anybody says. it is jobs. it is our economic future. it is the employment of people and children and families. we can deal with the deficit. but boy, you stay into this recession and the republicans and the democrats will pay a real serious price. not to mention the people. >> right. all right. well, former democratic governor of michigan, jim blanchard, you

laid it out there bluntly for the viewers. thank you. >> thank you. trivia time. michigan shut out n. what city did you find the ford presidential library? it's ann arbor because you can find a museum, the ford presidential museum here in grand rapids. of course, i assumed it is the library. incorrectly during a tweet last night and was corrected by one of my twitter followers so turns into the trivia question today. coming up, will a special interest spending be the ultimate decider on who wins in 2010? up next, the race for campaign cash by the numbers. and later today, i sit down with president obama here in michigan. we'll have the full interview right here tomorrow on "the daily rundown." but first, white house soup of the day. caldillo of brisket. it's probably pretty good. we al, geico has been saving people money

on rv, camper and trailer insurance... ...as well as motorcycle insurance... oh...sorry, technical difficulties. boss: uh...what about this? gecko: what's this one do? um...maybe that one. ♪ (dance music plays) boss: ok, let's keep rolling. we were on motorcycle insurance. anncr: take fifteen minutes to see how much you could save on motorcycle, rv, and camper insurance. i'm from the gulf coast. my family spends a lot of time here. i have a personal interest

in ensuring that we get this job done right. i'm keith seilhan. i'm in charge of bp's clean up on the gulf coast. bp's taken full responsibility for the clean up, and that includes keeping you informed. over 25,000 people are included in the clean up operation. our crews are cleaning the gulf beaches 24/7. we're going to be here as long as it takes to make this right.

all right. democratic leaders have been raising the alarm over millions in what they say is special interest spending against the party. democrat haves a $17 million fund raising advantage over the republicans under the committees but spending by republican interest groups could make a huge difference this fall. so let's bring in "the new york times" political correspondent all the money out there. tell us about other money we know is out there. >> exactly, chuck.

not all the money. we have to look at the gubernatorial associations. and the rga raised a boat load of money and when you add those governor numbers, it is almost equal parody. however, talking about the federal races, of course, talking about the balance of power in the house and significant gnat democrats have a wide cash advantage over republicans with the kippal c, democratic campaign committee versus the republican national campaign committee. that is important, overall, when you add the governors, it is parity. >> so, jeff, money isn't going to decide whether the democrats win or lose control of congress, is that a fair assessment? we talk about millions and what this really means, what this second quarter number really means, the importance of this is in one race. congressman betsy marquee from

colorado. she now has twice as much money on hand as her republican opponent. what that means is she can start running tv ads sooner. she can run more tv ads. republicans are limited in the amount of money that they can spread out to all these candidates. so, i think that's the important of this second quarter fund-raising, but money is one of the few bright spots for democrats. as you said earlier, a lot of outside republican groups are ready to pour money into that colorado race and others. >> you know, mark, we've been both, you and i have been shocked by the number of campaigns this year where outside groups have spent more money than the campaign itself. we saw it with bill hutler in arkansas and hawk in colorado and sharon engel in nevada. one of these groups, american cross roads. talk about them and who's behind them. >> american cross dwrgroups tha karl rove and ed gillespie has

created and they want to raise some $50 million, they've said, as a goal to be able to put in tv ads and other contests this fall. they have raised quite a bit of money and they are playing in nevada against harry reid and why sharon engel doesn't have that much money after her primary, it's just not american cross roads. the u.s. chamber has floated that they are able to spend $75 million this cycle and there is a lot of republican money from the interest group side that's floating out and those have turned into tv ads that we're seeing already. >> we can't forget big labor for the democrats and move on. jeff, very quickly, i saw a report that megwhitman may make a $40 billion contribution to the state party in california. that ends up benefiting everybody, including carly fiorina in a senate race, correct? >> it benefits all republican candidates and that means one thing. you'll see president obama and vice president biden back on the

plane flying back out to the west coast to raise more money for democrats there. if not, senator barbara boxer is in trouble. she already has a tough race on her hands. the democrats will spend a disproportionate amount of time on the west coast this year raising money. it's a very expensive place to run a campaign. >> all right, breaking down the money for us. it's fascinating. almost as if republicans are trying to lock the democrats down in california so that they can't do work else where. it's all a chess game sometimes, thank you very much.

the british open is already halfway finished and, excuse me, in the first round and while tiger has the first story coming in, it's another fan favorite sharing the spotlight in scotland, john daly tore through st. andrews today in the first round. he finished near the top of the

leaderboard. 6 under par. the former british open winner in 1995 held the lead through most of its opening round and sits just three shots back of ro rory. he shot behind daly on the leaderboard but in search of another major championship. tigser 5 under and he loves st. andrews and we know john daly does better at the british open. anything better than tiger woods and john daly in the final pairing of the final round? come on, guys. coming up next, chris jansing and then at 1:00 p.m. don't miss "andrea mitchell reports." you'll see my full interview with president obama tomorrow. we'll see you tomorrow.

starting out from boston to d.c. temperatures upper 80s to 90 and detroit could see some thunderstorms there and a hot one across the southwest, 77 in seattle but 114 town in phoenix and baking in los angeles with 93 degrees.